Pandaria
Pandaria, is the name given by the renowned Tirasian explorer and diplomat, Toma Rucocci, in his journal Journeys of Toma Rucocci, to the Shifting Lands, also known by the academia as the Southlands or just the Unknown Southern Continent, is a mysterious land located far south from the Eastern Kingdoms, and the homeland of the equally enigmatic Pandaren, an ancient and potentially, very powerful race of humanoid bear-cat people whom are very rarely observed in other parts of the world. It is described by Toma Rucocci as a beautiful land with "rivers flowing with honey and plains rolling with gold", of "the highest peaks that would even dwarf the majestic Alteracs" and "gentle hills that would even best the fairest foothills of Quel'thalas". It is a land of "a hundred kings and a thousand princes, ruled by a single God Emperor who claims to be the Son of Heaven" whose "palaces built from pillars of marble and floors of gems, all gilded with the purest gold." and are "so great and marvelous that would make the most achieved architects gasp and the most powerful of monarchs cry with envy." Toma Rucocci records the exoticness of the lands while being a scribe for the emperor which he always refers by full name as "the Great Virtuous Emperor of Godly Wisdom and Heavenly Strength" as tradition dictates, where there are nations ruled by "sentient and cruel insects" and "powerful dog-headed creatures made of stone" and tribes of ape-like barbarians and powerhungry fishmen far more advanced than the Murlocs of the known world, constantly threatening the peace and prosperity of the Pandaren; as a result, the forebears of the current emperor constructed a wall so long and mighty that would make even the rumored bastion of Alterac seem like a child's handiwork, its parapets garrisoned by inexhaustible armies that wear different colors to distinguish their ranks, holding weapons of designs so clever and strange that no artisan within the Old World could think up of. During his travels, Rucocci had seen villages nested in poetic scenery, its people wearing colorful garbs made of materials that he had not seen in his whole life, where the finest silk, luxurious and rare commodities in any of the old kingdoms, pile on the ground like worthless cloth and food stuff so abundant that all the Pandaren are plump and in a state of eternal tipsy. He recorded strange creatures such as gigantic golden toads that the wealthy keep as pets, large tortoise with the likeliness of a dragon, which are revered as gods, mystical, unicorn-like creatures called Qilin with the body of a goat, the head of a serpent and the scales of a fish, and majestic dragon-like cloud serpents which ride upon the flow of magic. Rucocci's time at court had also given him insights into the cultures and religion of the Pandaren, whom believe that everything around them has a spirit and should be enshrined, with the wealthiest cities sporting forests of golden pagodas, each dedicated to a spirit and guarded by stone constructs animated by court magicians. Of emperors who seek the way to immortality and alchemist-mages who craft elixirs from quicksilver and unfathomable magic that could cure any disease. Of court magicians so powerful and well-versed that they could summon violent storms and poisonous gases, change the flow of magic, create magic circles that could imprison a whole army and even change the course of heavenly bodies and revive the dead from the grave and restore them to their form in life. Of mystical hermits who live secluded for all their lives, trying to manipulate the light and dark energies of the body. Of book collections so vast that not even the libraries of Dalaran could contain. Of a brotherhood of warrior-monks who act as the secret police of the nation, who could kill a full-grown man with a touch of the finger. Category:Pandaren Category:Continents Category:Geography